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Inside the Mind of a New York VC: Issam Freiha of Alrai Capital

Welcome back to Inside the Mind of an NYC VC, a new series at AlleyWatch in which we speak with New York City-based Venture Capitalists. In the hot seat this time is Issam Freiha, Cofounder and Partner at Alrai Capital. Alrai’s first fund is a $10M fund focused on transportation technology. The firm is currently raising its second fund that will have a broader mandate to include investments in deep tech, consumer tech, and digitally-enabled marketplaces. Issam stopped by to talk about the genesis of the two-year old firm, its investment thesis, autonomous vehicles, the role of government, and much, much more.

If you are a NYC-based VC interested in participating in this series, please send us an email. We’d love to chat. If you are interested in sponsoring this series that showcases the leading minds in venture in NYC, we’d also love to chat. Send us a note.

Bart Clareman, AlleyWatch: Tell us about your journey into the venture business and how you came to found Alrai Capital?

Issam Freiha, Alrai Capital: I’ve been passionate about investing for most my life. In college, I studied finance and data science. I joined the board of the largest finance community on campus and worked for the student run investment fund.